“Practicing good epistemological hygiene requires that one seek out perspectives that challenge one’s own.”

– Seth Cotlar

I try to do that.  The perspectives that challenge my own and hold up to scrutiny are much more often from my left than from my right.

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.”

– Tom Stoppard

I too would prefer a benevolent dictator who imposes liberty and justice to the messiness of majority rule. Problem is, no one aspires to be dictator because they want to impose liberty and justice. And no one who prioritizes liberty and justice has much chance to be dictator.

-Radley Balko

From a review of Carlos Lozada’s book, A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era:

Messing around with the notion of truth is a luxury that comes with affluence. We have spent the past 50 years undermining the basic institutions of society — not just our sense of common purpose and identity, but also normative values like truth and duty and expertise. The politics of consumerism — and grievance — have overwhelmed the politics of unity and responsibility. Among Lozada’s favorite books is the conservative thinker Yuval Levin’s “A Time to Build”: “Popular culture compels us to ask: ‘What do I want?’ Institutions urge a different query, Levin explains: ‘Given my role here, how should I act?’